Future Family Ties
by X-SJ
Summary: Events following Derek's near fatal gun shot wound. Spoilers for Ep 1x05 & 1x06
1. Chapter 1

Future Family Ties

Chapter 1

Pain. He felt pain. Pain means your still breathing. He'd been sure his time was up, but apparently he'd pulled through; again. How? He didn't know, but as he weakly opened his eyes, he saw him. John. He was younger, a lot younger, but the eyes were the same, older then his years, they always had been.

He still wasn't sure why John had sent him back to 2007; he'd only been told that he needed to look out for younger John, that John would need him. He'd pretty much thought, when he took that bullet, that that was what he'd been sent back to do. To take a bullet for the sake of mankind, so that the boy could live to become the man the world would need in the inevitable war against the machines.

John looked at him then, saw that he'd regained consciousness, and looked him in the eyes. Derek had seen that look before, more then once, it was almost as if John new something he didn't. Kyle had often gotten the same impression, but John had always refused the elaborate when questioned about it. That look was replicated in the boy's eyes,

"Are you in pain?" John asked, looking down at the wound.

"I'll live." He replied weakly and once again lost consciousness.

xxx

This was his uncle. His mom had told him so. His older self had apparently chosen to keep that to himself and he'd yet to come up with a good reason why he would have done so. This was his father's brother, one of his soldiers from the future, Derek Reese, his protector; sent back to the past by his older self, to look after him, to protect him. His own father had died coming back to the past to protect his mother; he refused to let his uncle die protecting him. That had been his reason for running out of the house and tracking down Charley, his mom's ex-fiancé, in hopes that he could save Derek's life regardless of the consequences.

"You have to live," John whispered to the unconscious man, "I need you."

xxx

"He should know!" John whispered vehemently, "He has a right."

"We can't, John." His mother whispered back, looking cautiously at the motionless man, "There's a reason you didn't tell him in the future so that reason stands until we know why."

"I need him to know," John argued, "He needs to know!" John had seen the look Derek had had in his eyes; he had no reason to live, the man thought he'd completed his mission by taking the bullet that could easily have been targeted at John. He needed a reason to live.

"No, John." Sarah whispered with a little less conviction. Honestly, she wanted Derek to know the truth, but there had to be a reason why John had kept it from the Reese brothers.

John looked at her with anger and defiance. Her son. She new she couldn't control him anymore, barely anyways; he would eventually do as he pleased, but she could still try. She put her hand briefly on his shoulder as she walk away and out of the kitchen.

John looked down at Derek and saw that he was awake, "You hear all that?"

"You finally going to tell me what the big secret is, John?" Derek said weakly, anger evident in his tone, "Or am I going to die like my brother without ever knowing the truth?"

John looked away at the mention of Derek's brother; his father. Guilt plagued him, how could he send his own father on a mission whilst knowing what the outcome would be? What kind of man could do that? A hard man, a man who'd spent his whole life fighting a war, a man with not heart. John looked back at Derek, guilt in his eyes.

Derek didn't know what to make of the look that crossed his young keeper; this John couldn't have known his brother, not yet anyways. He'd died on a mission, sent to the past to stop the terminator sent back to eliminate Sarah Connor, giving his life for hers, for her son, but that had been before John was even born, so why the guilt?

But the look in John's eyes was quickly replaced with one he'd seen hundreds of times, this was the look John got when he put everything aside and the soldier that he was shown through, "You have to live," Young John told him, "I won't let you die because of me, I won't!"

"You don't even know me!" Derek replied angrily.

"I know enough," John said heatedly, "and I won't stand by and watch someone else sacrifice themselves for something that hasn't even happened yet, and god only knows what the hell I was thinking when I sent you back to watch over me! To die for me!"

"It's my Job," he replied after a few moments of silence, "it's what I do; I'm a soldier, I take orders and follow through with them." He could feel his body starting to shut down, he was about to lose consciousness again.

"My father sacrificed his life for mine and my mother's," John said emotionally, "I'm not going to let his brother to the same."

Confusion shown through the slits of Derek's eyes,

"What?" he asked, baffled.

But before John could reply, he lost consciousness.


	2. Chapter 2

Future Family Ties

Chapter 2

When he opened eyes again John was gone, the paramedic who'd saved his life was checking his vitals. "Where's John?" Derek asked weakly.

Charlie looked up, "Your awake, that's good"

Derek noticed how he avoided the question, "Where is he?"

He still had a job to do, take care of John, but things where messed up. He still wasn't sure what it was John had revealed, didn't dare dwell on it either. His priority was John, the other stuff came second, but John was proving to be as stubborn and difficult as his elder self; it was disconcerting to say the least.

The paramedic was in the process of checking his wound when Derek grabbed his arm. Charlie looked up, "He took off; Cameron went after him."

_Shit,_ Derek thought to himself, _WTF John?_ He wasn't sure how much this guy new about the whole robot thing so he didn't ask to confirm whether Cameron was the Terminator that was hanging around John and Sarah. "What about Sarah, where is she?"

"I'm here," she said from the doorway.

Derek looked over and saw Sarah Connor and again his thoughts returned to his brother and that damn picture he'd carried in his pocket. Derek had a thousand questions he wanted to ask Sarah. He wanted clarification on what John had implied; the thought alone made turmoil of his emotions; he didn't know what the hell to think anymore.

"You can't trust that thing with your son," Was the first thing he said.

Sarah glanced over at Charlie, but returned her gaze to Derek and approached him, "I don't have much choice."

Derek suddenly struggled to get up, Sarah put her hand on his chest; stopping him. "You can't move. You could make it worse." Sarah told him gently.

"I need to-"

Sarah cut him off by slightly shaking her head, "Believe it or not, he is safe for now, and he can take care of himself"

"No one is ever safe," Derek shot back.

She looked at him solemnly, and suddenly her thoughts where a thousand miles away. Derek frowned, "What is it?"

Sarah returned her gaze to his and all he saw was sadness, "You look like him." She whispered and left the room before he could reply.

He really needed to have a one on one talk with his John, Derek thought to himself, not the junior version he'd been sent back to protect, but the man that had taught him and his brother everything he knew about warfare, the man who'd fought beside him, the man who's taken bullets for him, the man who'd been like family to him for years, who he thought of as a brother, his leader. Things had been strained between him and John after Kyle had been sent on his mission. Kyle hadn't come back. John hadn't been able to really look him in the eye after that. Derek had always wondered why that was. And now, he was pretty sure he knew the reason. As much as he wanted a face to face with the man, it wasn't going to happen any time soon, he'd have to deal with the younger version, whenever it was that he chose to reappear from his disappearing act.

xxx

His family was messed up, John concluded. Who else on this Earth had been born before their own parent? The answer was no one, that's why he was psychologically messed up. And now, all of a sudden, he had an uncle; an uncle who though of him as a messiah and not as a nephew or even family. For all he knew, Derek hadn't been fully aware when he'd revealed the big secret, but deep in his gut, he was sure some of it had gotten through. His mother was going to be mad, but John knew his mom, he'd seen the look in her eyes when she'd been fighting for his uncle's life, she would forgive him.

Suddenly, he had the distinct feeling he was no longer alone, he looked behind him, "Go home Cameron."

There was hesitation in the robots movements, almost as if it didn't know how to treat the situation, "Leave, NOW!" John ordered. There was no hesitation after that. John, kicking a nearby tree, quickly followed the machine.

xxx

When he entered the house, he quickly realized that Derek was no longer on the kitchen island; he was gone. Fear gripped him, he quickly turned to go search for his mother when he noticed her looking at him from the kitchen entrance.

She quickly put his fears at ease, "He's upstairs, Charlie's up there taking his vitals."

She walked towards him, "He was asking for you."

John looked away, "What did he want?"

"What did you tell him, John?" Sarah countered.

He looked at her, "Probably too much."

She didn't say anything.

"It's going to screw with his mind," John said frowning.

His mother nodded, "Probably," she paused then smiled slightly, "I know I've always told you that you take after your Dad, but the eyes; yours are a dead ringer for Derek's"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." She confirmed with a far away look.

"I wish-" he started.

"You will, John." She soothed, "You'll meet your Dad, just not the conventional way."

"I know, but I still wish he could be my Dad, not my soldier." John replied sadly.

"I know," Sarah said, hugging her son to her, "I know."

xxx

When he was finally alone again, Derek tried getting up. He was sitting up and holding on tightly to the mattress. He got light headed all of a sudden and had the sudden urge to throw up. It eventually passed, but Derek realized he wasn't going anywhere's anytime soon. _God Damn it. _

When he woke up again some time later, Sarah was sitting in a chair by his bed, she was awake. "How you feeling?"

Derek did a quick mental check of his body. His side hurt like a bitch, but that was to be expected. He also felt slightly feverish; he was cold. "Fine," he answered.

Neither spoke for several minutes.

"Is it true?" Derek finally asked.

Sarah looked away, "Is what true?"

Derek frowned as the obvious evasion of his question; "You knew Kyle?" he prodded.

She finally turned her soulful gaze towards him, "Yes, I knew him."

"How well did you know him?" he asked carefully; fearing her answer.

Sarah knew what he was asking, "Well enough, but that was a long time ago for me; a lifetime ago."

She wasn't telling him anything he decided, "How long did you know him? Where you there when he-"

"When he died?" Sarah finished; a tear escape and trailed down her face, "Yeah, I was there."

The soldier in him refused to process this information with emotion, "And how long did you know him?"

"Two days; two very short days," Sarah answered, wiping the traitorous tear away, "It was the worst and best two days of my life."

Again silence.

"Yes." She finally said.

He looked up, "Yes what?"

"Yes, Kyle is John's father."

He'd pretty much figured that one out, but hearing it was another thing. Kyle and Derek had always felt a strong bond with John, but they'd always figured it was because of their similar goal: kill the fracking toasters. John had looked out for them when they were weak, had protected them, taken in the Reese boys as innocent men and turned them into soldiers. They'd been part of Connor's family in a way; John had made sure of that he now realized. But the man had _never_hinted they had actually been family by blood. Sure, John had talked about how his father had been a soldier and died before he'd been born, how his mom had loved the guy, but he'd never said his name or revealed any pertinent information. The whole situation was hard to wrap his mind around. Basically, he'd been the uncle to an older man and his brother had been his father. Just thinking about it gave him a headache. Regardless, he was an uncle to that teenager, because in 2007, he was just that, a teenager. Trained; yes, but a teenager nonetheless.

He was starting to rethink John's reason for sending him here. Had he known what was going to happen? Probably, Derek concluded, John always had his reasons for doing the things he did, rarely did he share though.

"This is obviously a lot for you to take in," Sarah said lightly.

Derek looked up at her, "You have no idea."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

John was sitting at the kitchen table with several school books in front of him when Sarah came down. She observed him silently and concluded that his mind was not on his books, "You're avoiding him."

He looked up slowly, but stayed silent.

"He's going to be fine," she then stated as she started walking towards him, she saw Cameron out of the corner of her eye, cleaning one of the weapons, "He knows."

"He remembered?" John asked warily.

"Some of it, I filled in the blanks." Sarah admitted; taking a seat beside her son.

John looked over at her sharply, "I thought you said it was a bad idea."

"It is."

He looked back down at his homework, "What did he say?"

"Not much, I don't think he knew what to say," Sarah answered.

"Is he angry?" John then asked.

"Some, I think," she said carefully, "You have to realized that Kyle hasn't been gone that long for him, the pain of losing his brother is fresh and he'll lash out at anyone that may be the cause."

John nodded, ran a hand through his unruly hair, "I don't know how to act around him," he said frowning, "He knows me, well, the older me, but I have no idea who he is to me other then my uncle of my estranged father from the future; how screwed up is that?"

"Just be yourself, John" Sarah said finally, "Just be you."

"Who _am_ I?" He whispered to himself as he watched her walk away.

xxx

Sarah knocked lightly on the door as she pushed it open to bring in some food for Derek. Two days had gone by and he was itching to get out of bed permanently. They hadn't exchanged many words since the revelation of John's paternity. Derek had refused to talk about it, but Sarah could tell something was on his mind now. She placed the soup on the night stand and waited, "What?" she finally asked him.

"I didn't say anything," he said sharply.

Sarah had a fairly good idea what was on Derek's mind; her fifteen year old son, "He's just a kid you know," she said, "He isn't the man you know in your future, not yet anyways."

He frowned at her, "I know that."

"Do you?" she fired back, "Because I get the impression that you're waiting for him to waltz in here and give you your standing orders or maybe to explain why he never revealed his true relationship with you and your brother."

"Then why is he avoiding me?" Derek shot back angrily.

Sarah frowned, "He hasn't been in since he told you?"

"I barely remember that, if you hadn't confirmed it, I would have though I'd been dreaming at the time." He replied truthfully.

Sarah said nothing, and was still frowning.

"Sarah?" Derek said.

She looked over at him, "I think its guilt."

"For what?" Derek asked.

She looked down and then back up at him, "When we first brought you here we had trouble stabilizing you, you were really out of it. John was sitting with you, giving you blood to help you replenish what you'd lost, you started yelling for Kyle," She stopped and looked at him sadly, "You kept yelling at John, demanding you tell him where he'd sent Kyle, what he'd done to him; to your brother."

Derek looked away.

"He's known since he was very young who his father was, that he would never know him as a father but that someday he would have to send him back to the past, knowing what the outcome will be," she explained to him, "He has to live with that."

Neither said anything for a few moments, and then Derek spoke up, "If it's any consolation to you, they were close; John and Kyle, in my time," he frowned, "I always wondered why he took us under his wing."

Sarah looked up at him solemnly.

"Now I know."

xxx

Derek had had enough; if John wasn't going to come see him then he was going to see John. He'd been up and around before, but Sarah had always been around to catch him when he'd start swaying. He was fairly confident that he could manage now; it's not like it was the first gun shot he'd ever gotten.

Getting out of the room was a slow process, out of habit he grabbed the 9mm that Sarah had placed in arms reach, and tucked it in the back of his pants. It seemed like hours before he reached the door, he opened it slowly and peered down the hallway. Bracing himself with the wall he slowly made his way down the hall. The house was eerily silent. He glanced over at the clock in what appeared to be Sarah's room; it was two o'clock and if Derek was right, it was a Tuesday. John was at school. Derek could barely remember going to school when he'd been younger; before the bombs had hit; it seemed all too normal. He decided that he'd try going downstairs and wait for John to get home. Sarah had told him earlier that she would be out all day checking out a lead she'd gotten regarding the Skynet.

He made his way towards the top of the stairs when he heard it, a noise coming from the room to his left. It sounded like music, but it was turned down low. He had the gun in his hands before he even thought of it; again, habit. He pushed the door open with his left hand, pistol in his right one. The creaking of the door alerted the body on the other side and Derek was met with a pistol pointed at him.

"Jesus Christ!" John cursed, "What the hell are you doing sneaking up on me?"

He lowered his pistol and Derek followed suit; he smirked, "Shouldn't you be in school?"

John frowned, "Should you be up?" he countered.

Derek shrugged, "I've never been out of commission for that long and I've had worse."

"Yeah, well you're bleeding again," John pointed out.

Derek looked down and sure enough, a small spot of blood had seeped through his bandages. Ignoring it, he looked over at the computer that John had been working at; he was pretty sure he saw an open window on the FBI database before John stepped over, obscuring his vision. Secretive as ever, Derek surmised.

"Where's the tincan?" Derek then asked, making his dislike for it obvious.

John frowned, put the gun down on the desk and then looked back up at his uncle, "School."

"Does it know you're here?" Derek then questioned, and then before John could answer he did, "Obviously not, or it would be here too."

Derek shook his head in exasperation, took a couple steps towards the bed and sat down, "Is there a reason you don't want it to know where you are? Your mom seams to think it should be around you 24/7."

"She doesn't need to know everything," John said, and then contemplating whether he should tell Derek the truth, he went to his desk and grabbed the business card he'd found in his mother's room. He went to Derek and handed it over, "I found this in my mom's stuff, I think the FBI visited Charlie and left him the contact card. Cameron has licenses to kill when it comes to anything that could harm her mission; this FBI agent could be a problem. I was checking him out."

Derek looked down at the card, read it, and then slowly looked back up at John. He said nothing for a few seconds, "What did you find?"

John was slightly taken back at Derek's immediate acceptance of his reasoning. He went over to the desk once again, grabbed the computer and brought it back to the bed so that Derek could see the screen, "I just got in to their database, but it's going to take a bit more work to crack the files on their own Agents."

Derek look at the screen and then back up at John, "How long before you do?"

John looked down at his watch, "It's not going to happen today; I have to go back to school before Cameron notices I was gone."

"How long has it been with you guys?" Derek then asked, "You seem pretty comfortable around it."

John met his uncle's gaze, "Not long," he paused, "It's not the first one that's been sent back to protect me, and I doubt it will be the last."

Derek frowned, he'd never known about John's life when he was growing up, he had a lot to learn, "You shouldn't trust it, they have a habit of backstabbing you." He said, and then more firmly, "Don't ever believe that you're safe around it."

John looked at him solemnly, "No one is ever safe." He shot back, unknowingly throwing Derek's own words back at him.

Derek nodded, "No one is ever safe." He affirmed.

John checked the time again, "I got to go," And rose from the bed with computer in hand.

"Here, I can keep working on that." Derek said pointing at the computer.

"What?" John said frowning.

"You think you're the only one who can crack a code?" Derek replied.

John rose and eyebrow in doubt, and handed the computer over, "Be careful, the firewalls are sensitive."

Derek looked at him, "Believe it or not kid, this isn't the first time I've hacked the FBI database."

"The FBI still around in the future?" John asked sarcastically.

Derek frowned, "I was at MIT taking software engineering before SkyNet took over, I do, believe it or not, know a little about computers."

John looked at him in surprise, but chose to say nothing. He walked over to where he'd left his gun and hid it away. He turned back to Derek, "There's a high powered rifle under the mattress. I'll be back at quarter to four, make sure anything you find is stored away."

Derek nodded and watched as young John grabbed his bookbag and left without a backward glance. John may have been young, but he still looked like he had the weight of the world resting on his shoulders. _Well, that definitely didn't go like I thought it would_, he thought to himself as he started to continue the work John had started on the code breaking; and marveled at the ease in which he got back into hacking mode.


End file.
